


Your tail is precious and so am I (Kinda)

by Fli_shea



Series: The Fantasy island and whatnot [2]
Category: TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: Helloo!, I Suddenly had this idea while watching the PUMA MV, Ill update tags as I go along, M/M, and so i took some time to write it out lol, is just our boys being pumas and stuff, there will be relationships so not to worry also hehehehhe, who wants to bet that when the relationship tags get put in ill suddenly have more reader ( ¬ 3 ¬ )
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:26:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25114606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fli_shea/pseuds/Fli_shea
Summary: "Escaping the zoo is to court death. Staying is to walk into the jaws of misery. When the lions dethrone, a parade of suffering befalls the land. Only the Puma reigns supreme to save the souls of the beautiful." Taehyun stares blankly at the words on the scroll, all lettered in beautiful gold onto the black leather.Without any notice, he takes the scroll and angrily throws it onto the ground."Who the fuck decided that riddles and poems are good ways to communicate? They could have just told us why we are here but nooo, now we have to not only be trapped in this fucking jungle but solve a fucking riddle!?"OrTaehyun and Huening kai get dropped into a world where pumas rule.[Whatnot series]
Relationships: Undisclosed till later chapters :D
Series: The Fantasy island and whatnot [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1779484
Comments: 4
Kudos: 31





	1. To be awoken in a weird jungle.

**Author's Note:**

> Well hello there fellow Moa, this is just a fun little fic I had a sudden urge to write when that Puma MV came out and I was entirely shook by our boys (¬8¬) 
> 
> Their characters will definitely be OOC but if you keep that away from your mind, I don't think this was a bad attempt at writing :D

**Chapter 1.**

The first thing he notices when he awakens is that it's wet. Like really wet. Like the CIA has caught you and started torturing you via water wet. 

… okay maybe not like that, but still it’s wet.

_ "Where the fuck am I?"  _ He thinks, his surroundings blurry and dark, the smell of moss strong in the air.

His head hurts, a piercing pain almost like it had been chewed open by a hippo. Those aggressive fucks would do it in a heartbeat. 

But it's still wet, and now he's becoming cold.  _ "Well, this isn't good." _ He realises, finally trying to move. At first, the only part of himself that has any feeling is his fingers, wiggling them into the soft ground. 

Slowly, maybe it was his nerves finally kicking in, to make sure he isn't going to  _ die  _ or anything, feeling starts coming back into his hands, then his arms, then his toes, then his legs. 

" _ Okay- Okay- The pain isn't that bad anymore."  _ He tries to think positively, ignoring how as more feeling return to his body, the more the ground feels muddy and  _ wet. _

"What the fuck?" A familiar voice practically screams not too far from his right. Blinking hard, his vision evens out as his head starts analysing his surroundings. 

"Kai? Is that you?" The boy shouts, regretting doing so instantly as his headache pierces through his skull. 

"Taehyun?" The familiar voice, Kai, shouts back a bit more controlled.

"Yeah, it's me. Are you okay?" Taehyun asks, finally regaining his bearing. The cool air chills him, encouraging him to start moving his body. Very slowly, his arms feeling as weak as after the first time he had started exercising, Taehyun pushed his body upwards, now sitting on the ground instead of lying. 

"I'm fine!" Kai returns, his own clarity coming back to him. 

Taehyun orientates himself, his vision has come back to a  _ passable _ degree. Just a bit of blurry spots here and there. However, his vision comes with the view of his current surroundings, which does not bring him any joy.

"Kai," Taehyun turns towards Huening, his already bug eyes blown even wider at the sight of their surroundings. Kai looks back at him with equal parts confusion, fear, and worry. "We're in a fucking jungle." 

"No shit Tae, I can see that." 

Taehyun just huffs back in response, ignoring the blatant attitude Kai was giving him. " _ Can't even get angry at him when I would have replied with the exact same thing." _

Feeling confident enough with his body to not just drop face-first into the wet, mossy ground, Taehyun braces himself on the thick trunk of the tree next to him, pulling himself up onto his feet. Once his balance is in place, he starts walking over to go help Kai who had already pushed himself upright.

"What the  _ fuck _ ," Taehyun spits again, pulling Kai up to stand. He looks around where they are, and all he can see is trees, leaves, moss, and dirt. "Where the fuck?" 

"I wish I knew my dude." Kai replies, rolling his head to get the knots out of his neck. He looks back down to the spot where he had been laying down, just a spot with wet leaves and twigs. " _Wow_ , _such_ _comfortable accommodation."_

"Do you remember anything?" Kai asks, looking away from the brown, leaf-covered ground to Taehyun.

"I don't." Taehyun replies, looking straight up through the canopy. All he manages to see are green leaves, dark green leaves, red and green moss, and brown. 

He feels a tug on his sleeve and breaks away contact with the abundance of leaves. Tilting his head in curiosity at Kai, he follows Kai's finger to a patch of beige. 

"I think that's a bag." Kai says, a small sliver of relief palatable on his breath.

Taehyun nods in reply, relief flowing into his lungs as well. "We should check it, to see if there are any clues to where the fuck we are." 

"But it's dark." Kai whines. 

Taehgun rolls his eyes and links his arm with Kai. "Bitch, if I go then you'll be here in the dark alone." 

Kai doesn't even reply, just squeezing the linked arm tighter against his body. Together, across the mossy and wet ground, Taehyun and Kai shuffle towards the beige bag. From the looks of it, the bag wasn't huge, but it was definitely big enough to hold water and some snacks. Reaching the bag, they both squat around the bag, staring at it.

"Should we touch it?" Kai asks, suddenly feeling suspicious, his previous relief at seeing the bag all gone in a flash now replaced with anxiety. Why the fuck would it be all the way other here when he and Taehyun had passed out over there?

Taehyun releases a sigh, feeling tired even though theoretically, he had been passed out already for god knows how long. 

"Yes Kai, we will need to touch the bag to open it."

"I'm not touching it. It could be a bomb or something…" 

Taehyun looks up unamused at Kai, and rubs his face, immediately regretting when he feels mud on his cheek. " _ Aw man, my skin _ .  _ Now I'm going to get pimples _ ."

He reaches out to the bag, opening the flap and unzipping it. There was no bomb inside, so he tilts the bag to show Kai, who visibly sighs out in relief. Taehyun starts pulling out the things that were inside.

"A bottle of water, 15 energy bars, a huge wad of… black leather?" 

The boys looked bewildered at the black leather, the sheer size of it had taken up over half the bag space. Taehyun blinks a few times, pulling out the final item that was in the bag, a leather scroll. 

Kai takes one look at the scroll and closes his eyes, the expression of someone in absolute irritation strong on his face. "I'm going to slap whoever packed this fucking bag."

Taehyun nods in sympathy, his own annoyance overriding any previous fear he might have been feeling. "I'm going to read the scroll, and then I'm going to run myself so hard against a tree I fall into a coma." 

Kai just nods in agreement, stuffing the leather wad and most of the energy bars back into the bag. He hands one to Taehyun and opens the water to take a drink before eating his own bar.

With a mouthful of an almond honey bar, Taehyun opens the scroll, lays it out in front of the both of them, and starts reading it.

"Escaping the zoo is to court death. Staying is to walk into the jaws of misery. When the lions dethrone, a parade of suffering befalls the land. Only the Puma reigns supreme to save the souls of the beautiful." Taehyun stares blankly at the words on the scroll, all lettered in beautiful gold onto the black leather. 

Without any notice, he takes the scroll and angrily throws it onto the ground.

"Who the fuck decided that riddles and poems are good ways to communicate? They could have just told us why we are here but nooo, now we have to not only be trapped in this fucking jungle but solve a fucking riddle!?"

Kai finishes up his energy bar, and takes a sip of water, trying to calm himself down even though he wants to freak out exactly like how Taehyun is.

"I'm even more confused as to why we're here." Kai says honestly, watching as Taehyun stomps over to the previously discarded scroll to roll it back up. 

"I swear to whoever is playing this game on us that I will personally rip their heart out." He whines, brushing off the dirt on the scroll and stuffing it back into the bag. He reaches over to the water bottle and takes a large gulp, finishing half the bottle.

Kai watches as the water level goes down even further as Taehyun takes another gulp. "Guess our first priority is to get water." 

"Yeah… do you have any idea what time it could be right now?" Taehyun asks, capping the bottle and stuffing it back into the bag as well.

"No clue."

"Well, that fucks us up." 

Taehyun drops onto the ground and looks around them again. However, this time he finally notices something strange about the jungle they are in. " _ Why the fuck is the tree bark purple?" _

"Hey, um, Kai?" 

"That's me."

"Of course I know it's you. But Kai, look at the vines and the bark of the trees." 

Kai takes a moment to inspect the trees, and quickly realises the same thing. "Why the fuck is the tree bark purple?" 

"I thought that exact same thing. But what the fuck! Are we in another time? World? Planet? Are we even alive right now?" 

"Um, Tae, not the time?" Kai pales, a whirlwind of thoughts crashing through his brain. "I might actually pass out again." 

"Oh," Taehyun hurriedly scoots over to Huening Kai, holding his hands and he squeezes them lightly. Kai's breathing had started speeding up the moments his eyes caught sight of the otherworldly tree colour. "It's okay Kai, we're okay. Don't think about the ifs or whats. We will figure out what's going on slowly at our pace and I’ll be with you the whole time."

With Taehyuns voice, Kai slowly calmed down, realising that as long as both of them were not hurt, everything would be okay. "It's Okay. I'm Okay. Thank you Hyunnie." 

Taehyun smiles and releases his grip on Huening Kai. " _ Now that that's settled, what the fuck do we do now?" _

The ground is still wet, and the trees looked even more purple with time. Suddenly, a prickle of nerves waves over Taehyun, and not in a good way. It was almost like something was warning him. Taehyun quickly stands up and pulls Huening Kai up alongside him. Kai picks up the bag, and eyes Taehyun suspiciously.

"What's wrong?"

"I- I don't know," Taehyun looks at the trees behind Huening Kai warily. "But something is telling me we have to go. Now." 

Not wanting to stay around to find out why his nerves were so high all of a sudden, Taehyun leads Huening Kai away from their awakening site, his gut telling him to go southwest which was directly the opposite of the direction of the danger trees. Kai eventually starts walking in front of Taehyun, his longer legs giving him an advantage in stride.

“Wait, Kai, don’t cross that tree.” Taehyun pulls Kai back to his side, pushing him to the left instead.

“Huh, why?” Kai questions, but follows Taehyun's instructions and continues to walk to the left.

“I don’t know. I just had a feeling that if you crossed that tree we would be in danger.”

“Woah, hold up. Danger like ‘HeHeHe, Kai has fallen down and hurt his leg’ or ‘Oh fuck, Kai has fallen down and hurt his leg’?”

Taehyun looks behind them, the prickly feeling not subsiding at all. “More like ‘Oh fuck, Kai has his heart ripped out of his chest’.”

“Oh. That-That’s not good.” Kai replies, picking up his pace slightly.

“No the fuck it isn’t!” Taehyun freaks, the prickly feeling now growing at an alarming rate. However, just as he was about to voice his worries to Kai, Kai stops dead in his tracks, eyes looking to the ground. 

“Kai, this isn’t the time to stop.”

“I know.” Is all he replies before crouching down to touch the ground. Taehyun watches as Kai picks up  _ something _ from the moss, but upon closer inspection, there’s nothing in his hand. 

“ _ What the fuck is he doing now?”  _ Taehyun thinks, watching Kai bring absolutely nothing up to his eyes and blows on… it?

“Hyun,” Kai speaks, his eyes fogged over in a dead stare at this invisible object. “There’s a cave nearby.”

“O-Okay?” 

“Once we get to the cave, we’ll be safe.”

Out of nowhere, his anxiety levels spike, his brain telling him to ‘START MOVING’ or they would meet something they would not want to. Pulling him up, Taehyun makes sure the bag is still safely on Kai. 

“Then guide the way. We cannot stay here any longer.”

Kai takes off to the right, with Taehyun following not far behind. The muddy ground and purple bark slowly transform into a path of leaves and red trees. And, as more and more of their surroundings change from a jungle that’s slightly familiar with the green and brown to a colour palette of blue leaves and red bark, the sound of a waterfall grows louder.

“Behind the waterfall.” Kai stops, his fogged eyes clearing more and more the closer to this waterfall they get. It takes a moment, but Taehyun realises that the further into this peculiar jungle they go, the more his anxiety subsides. Now it’s just a hum at the forefront of his mind. 

“Kai? You good?”

“I think so? But where are we? Weren't we just in the jungle? Why are the trees blue?”

“You picked something up and then just started running. The more we ran the weirder the trees got and then you stopped and said that we needed to go into the cave behind the waterfall.” Taehyun replies, his gut now telling him to look into the water. 

As Kai takes a moment to straighten his thoughts, Taehyun walks over to the large basin right below the waterfall, droplets of crystal-like water splashing onto his face. For the first time since awakening, he noticed that his hair was bright red. 

“ _ That’s weird… I don’t recall dyeing my hair red?” _

Other than that, he also realises that his clothes were quite unique. Looking at Kai, he sees that they were actually dressed quite similarly, in all black clothes with leather pants and boots. The same type of leather that is in their bag and what the scroll was made from.

Kai notices Taehyun staring, and jogs up to him next to the water. “You know, for a waterfall, it isn't very loud.”

Taehyun watches the waterfall for a second before agreeing, too many questions popping up into his mind. 

“Also, since there is water here why not clean your face?”

Taehyun looks back down into the water, but something at the back of his mind telling him to not wash his face. He sees Kai’s face free of much dirt and suddenly feels very exposed. 

“It’s safer for us if our faces are dirty,” He suddenly says, bending down to the ground to get some red mud from the river bank. “Here, rub this on your face and hair slightly. We- We have to try and camouflage ourselves. I think.” 

Kai eyes Taehyun suspiciously for a moment before taking the mud and rubbing some on his face and hair. “Honestly, If you told me to jump off a cliff right now I might just do it. I’m literally so confused right now.”

Taehyun watches as Kai's pretty face slowly gets hidden the more he pats on the mud, the red patches hiding his features slightly as the mud in his hair makes it look greasy and flat. Now as equally dirty as him, Taehyun takes the moment to question Kai.

“By the way, what did you pick up in the jungle before turning all weird?”

“Oh,” kai starts, opening the bag to take out the water bottle. “I’m not very sure to be honest. It looked like a golden translucent wing.”

“A wing?”

“Yeah. I don't even know how I noticed it but when I picked it up, it was like this clarity had been pulled upon me and then the next thing I know, we’re here.”

“That’s weird...” Taehyun says, taking a drink out of the bottle before letting Kai finish it off.

Kai dunks the bottle into the water, capping it once it’s filled and takes out another two energy bars. “Yeah. Here, eat this then let’s find a way behind the waterfall.”

“I might know how to get up there,” Taehyun says as he chews a mouthful of the energy bar. “I had a feeling that we had to look into the river but I got distracted by my hair.”

Taehyun ignores the look of unamusement Kai shoots him and finishes up his bar. Tucking the wrapper into the bag, he looks back into the water.  _ “The water is almost as clear as crystal but why can’t I see anything? All I can see is my face.”  _

Not able to find a solution in the basin, he walks up to the dirt wall and starts looking at the waterfall, trying to see if there is a way to climb up. However, once again, his prickly feeling of anxiety punches him in the gut as warning signs flash through his mind. 

_ “Oh fuck what now.” _ He thinks, running back over to Kai.

“Kai we need to find a way up  _ now _ .” He panics. “My brain is telling me we will die if we stay out in the open for any longer.”

Kai just continues to look into the water, almost as if he had ignored Taehyun. Freaking out and not wanting to die in a fucking jungle, Taehyun slaps Kai straight across his face. 

“Ow! What the fuck was that for?” Kai shouts, breaking out of another haze. 

“I said, we have to find a way up or we die!” Taehyun shouts back, the warning signs in his head now blaring even louder.

“Oh,” Kai replies, pointing to the basin of water under the waterfall. “Then, let’s just follow the light that's under the water.” 

Looking back into the water, _because_ _what fucking light_ , Taehyun still sees no difference in the basin, his face the only thing looking back at him. “I see fuck all, Huening.” 

Kai just sighs in response, and drags an unsuspecting Taehyun over to the water's edge and jumps into the basin. 

Right behind them, a group of 5 reptilian looking lions pounce into the clearing.


	2. Meeting others or something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo ho ho, next chapter uppsss ( * + * )

**Chapter 2.**

Under the water, Taehyun starts freaking out even more, breathing in mouthfuls before feeling someone pull him above the surface and onto dry ground.

“What the fuck Kai!” Is all he can scream before coughing, feeling as though his throat is being torn with every breath he takes. 

“Hey! It’s either we did that, or we face those ugly looking  _ things _ that just popped up to where we just were!” Kai coughs back, pulling Taehyun over to look down into the water they had just come out from. 

“What is this? What are they? Are those lions?”

“Look me in the eyes and tell me how would I know? They seem to be some type of lizard-lion hybrid thing. Also, I’m very sure the basin connects to the cave behind the waterfall. Like, magically.” Kai replies.

They watch for a moment as the lizard lions scour the area, sniffing and growling. 

Suddenly, one of the 5 hybrid things roars and takes off down the river. The others follow suit, their roars so powerful that Kai and Taehyun could feel the ground vibrate. Like a bucket of despair being pored over them, the roar managed to cause them to go weak in their knees. 

“Tho- Those  _ things  _ were what your danger brain was warning you about?” Kai whimpers, dropping down to lay on his back. The ground was dry and provided much needed not-wet comfort. 

As the last lion thing runs off, all Taehyun could see was a reflection of his face in the water. Similarly, with Kai, their plunge in the water didn’t wash away much of the dirt on their faces, and he soon follows suit with Kai and lays down. 

Through the waterfall, he watches as the light slowly darkens, throwing the cave into pitch black darkness as his eyes close for some much-needed rest.

\----------

Unfortunately, Taehyyn finds himself waking up to sunlight by being splashed immensely by water. Once again,  _ wet _ .

"What the  _ Fuck  _ Kai!" Taehyun startles awake, his leather pants managing to repel most of the water but his shirt not having any similar luck. Sitting in a puddle of water, he squares up at Kai, wholeheartedly ready to beat that tall motherfucker. 

"You've slept for long enough," Kai rolls his eyes, throwing an energy bar from the beige bag over to Taehyun. "I've even managed to explore a bit of the cave." 

Taehyun clicks his tongue in annoyance but opens and eats the energy bar. Still half asleep, and with a mouthful of breakfast, he vaguely asks what Kai had found.

Kai brings the bag over and sits cross legged in front of Taehyun, backlit by the light coming through the waterfall. "The cave goes in quite deep actually, but somehow the light goes all the way in."

"That's not normal- though nothing here has been normal after we woke up." Taehyun states, brain finally waking up with help from the energy bar. He gestures for Kai to continue as he digs through the bag to find the water bottle. 

"True. What's even more  _ not  _ normal was finding drawings and markings all over the cave walls." 

"Like Egyptian hieroglyphics and shit?" 

"Oh no, none of those cool pictures. Think more colourful caveman drawings with extra circles and lines- which, for the record, I think are also magic."

Taehyun rubs his eyes, getting rid of the last remnants of sleep. "They are most definitely going to be magic. Also, are we just going to forget about those lion things that were hunting us yesterday?" 

Kai puts his finger on Taehyun's lips, shushing him. "I have chosen, for the benefit of me  _ not _ having a permanent panic attack, to suppress that memory until we have found out just why the  _ fuck _ we are in his magic jungle, in a magic cave, about to explore some magic drawings." 

Taehyun pushes Kai's finger away from him, squaring up one again. "If we meet those things again, I'll drop-kick you in the knees." 

Lightly slapping away Taehyun's raised fists, Kai swings the bag over his right shoulder and stands. Taehyun follows, stretching his legs as he waves for Kai to lead the way. 

Walking further into the cave, Taehyun finds that what Kai had said previously was true, that no matter how far they walk, their surroundings are always perfectly lit. 

"Here is where the first drawings are." Kai points to the left, a gigantic mural of colourful drawings lining the wall. A few meters down shows a similar view on the right wall. 

"Oh, wow…" Taehyun gapes in amazement, the bright colours of the drawings bringing awe and wonder to his eyes. "How the hell is there so much colour?" 

"I know right? I literally stood here in awe for a good 30 minutes looking at these drawings." 

"They are 100% magic." 

"Yeah, and check this out," Kai drags Taehyun to the end of the cave, murals on both sides joining and leaking into a circle on the open ground. However, instead of more colourful drawings, they blend into some type of writing. "Magic circle in a secret tunnel. Very nice, very mysterious." 

"Have you tried to see what it can do yet? I'm very sure that magic things are your specialty between the two of us. "

"No," Kai shakes his head, his bangs falling into his eyes. "Kinda wanted you to be around to see if I  _ should  _ even touch this circle. Ya know, with your danger brain and all. Plus, something crazy seems to always happen when I'm with magic." 

"Wait, are we calling my amazingly accurate 6th sense danger brain?" Taehyun laughs, not opposed to the name in any way. 

_ "If I'm danger brain then he's magic finder."  _ He thinks, telling Kai of the name as well, who just laughs in agreement. 

"I'm going to slowly put my hand down on the circle. If your brain starts acting up then we will just leave through that waterfall." Kai voices, bending down to slowly reach towards the circle. 

Suddenly, a monstrous scream reverberates through the cave. Taehyun feels that same spike of nerves once the scream passes, his face falling as he meets eyes with Kai.

"What the fuck." Kai asks, looking a bit pale from the sudden fright. He looks down the cave in panic, as even though it's lit all the way through, they've walked deep enough that they can't see their starting point. 

"It's okay, that scream came from outside the cave." Taehyun soothes, his prickle of nerves not spiking or calming, meaning that whatever thing had screamed couldn't get closer to them. Taking a step towards where they had come from, Taehyun feels the panic grow slightly. "But if we try to leave from the waterfall, we will both die." 

"Magic circle?" Kai asks, face still slightly pale but looking like he is completely done with this shit.

"Magic circle." Taehyun nods, holding Kai's hand. The cave rumbles and the scream sounds again, but the nerves in his head still stay at a constant panic. However, a warning suddenly pops into his brain that scares the ever living shit out of him. 

"Touch the fucking circle  _ now. _ If we wait here for too long, that thing will be able to break a hole through the cave. Plus I'm almost certain that those hybrid things are working with it." 

"Didn't need to tell me twice." 

Taehyun tightens his grip on Kai and watches as he takes a deep breath before touching the circle. From where it was touched, a line of dark writing swirls inside the circle, and once the whole inside was completely covered, certain characters started to glow a blinding blue. 

Closing their eyes and bracing against each other, a warmth flows over them as they hear the monstrous scream again. This time, sounding even louder and closer.

“I swear to god if we end up in water again, I’m going to end myself.” Is all Taehyun manages to snark, the splash of water from before having just barely dried from his shirt, before the light swallows the both of them. 

Luckily for Taehyun, once the warmth washes over him, he feels no water or any liquid near his body. Still tightly gripping Kai’s hand, he opens his eyes to a beautiful sight. 

“Wow.” He hears Kai whisper, looking down into the outskirts of the forest from their vantage point up in the mountain. Purple, blue, and yellow trees cover as far as their eyes can see.

“Look over there,” Kai says as he points to a far off distance, his grip not loosening in the slightest. “The waterfall we were at is like just a speck.” 

In the distance, the cliff face just looks like a tiny rock.

“Oh wow, it is.”

“Yeah, and no water here, so you won’t have to off yourself.”

Taehyun smacks the back of Kai’s head, taking a breather to let his nerves from earlier to slowly melt away. He looks down at his and Kai’s clothes, sweaty and muddy from their adventure the day before. 

Looking out into the forest, he makes sure danger brain isn’t worried for their lives before finally relaxing.

“No hybrid lions or scary screams for the time being.” He offers Kai, the younger boys face unnaturally pale behind the splotches of red mud. 

“So like, theoretically speaking, If we had stayed what would have happened?”

“Um, we would have fucking died?”

“Of course I know that dipshit. I mean, do you know if we would have gotten eaten by those lion things or like our eardrums ruptured and we bleed to death through our ears?” 

“Nah, my danger brain doesn’t tell me that much in detail.”

Taehyun completely lets go of Kai’s hand and wipes his pants, the sun drying off the rest of his shirt. He suddenly thinks back to the riddle in the scroll, unhappy that he even has to try and solve it.

“Hey Kai.” He calls.

“Hmm.”

“Remember the scroll? The one with the annoying ass riddle?”

“Yes?”

“Well, the first two sentences said  _ ‘Escaping the zoo is to court death. Staying is to walk into the jaws of misery.’.  _ Do you think we have just finished the first part?”

“What do you mean?” Kai raises his eyebrow in confusion, tilting his head as he replies.

“Well,” Taehyun begins, “courting death doesn’t mean we are going to die, more like it’ll be something we are going to be deeply involved with.”

“Oh. Yeah, I guess that makes sense?” Kai replies. “Plus, if we stayed in the cave, we would be pretty miserable right now.” 

“True. But I really don’t get the second part.  _ ‘When the lions dethrone, a parade of suffering befalls the land. Only the Puma reigns supreme to save the souls of the beautiful.’.  _ Like, are those lions part of this whole thing or something?”

“Listen, my friend, my brain has been mush with fuzz ever since picking up that wing. All I know is, I would gladly give up my left kidney to  _ not  _ have to see those ugly things again.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right?” 

“No, I know I’m right. Magic finder brain says it’s right.” Kai supplies, staring off into the distance with a dazed look on his muddied face. Taehyun brushes his fingers through his hair, trying to push his fringe out of his eyes but only being able to feel the utter grossness of unwashed, dirty hair. 

The falling of some small rocks behind them startles the two boys. A splash of something wet coats the back of them as a deep voice growls behind them.

“State your purpose of having trespassed onto our land!”

Confused as to why his brain didn’t give him a warning of their new ‘friend’, but true to his previous words of ending himself if there was water at their destination, Taehyun shouts a simple “Can I just not get drenched in fucking water for one goddamn minute!” as he turns around. 

Seeing as Taehyun is in his normal, non-panicky mood, Kai follows Taehyun in turning and reads the situation as non-lethal, loudly groaning an innocent “What the fuck is it now?” 

Once turned, Taehyun comes face to face with the new voice, the boy pointing a glowing green spear at them. The boy is actually really cute, his acorn shaped jet black hair complimenting the black clothes he was wearing, the leather vest and nose piercing adding a slight flair to his look. The only thing tipping Taehyun off that this boy wasn’t fully human were his mismatched red and blue eyes. 

Sighing, Taehyun rubs his temples to fight away any headache that even thought of appearing and starts searching the ground around them. 

“Wha- What’s he doing?” The boy asks, his spear ready to strike at a moment's notice. 

“Well Mr. whoever you are,” Kai sasses, petting Taehyun on his head in full dramatics to calm the redhead down. “Whatever thing you splashed on us was wet, and now Taehyun over here is looking for the sharpest rock to slam his head into.”

The boy looks on in bewilderment at the antics of the two mysterious boys in front of him. Instead of fearing for their lives, they were acting as if he wasn’t a threat with the shorter one on his hands and knees feeling around for a ‘sharp rock to slam his head into’ while the taller one tried to pull him off the ground. 

“Oh for fucks sake Taehyun!” Kai shouts, using all his strength to pull Taehyun up from the ground. “Whatever was splashed onto us is already dry!”

Taehyun feels around the back of his shirt, surprised at the speed of which the unknown liquid had dried off. “Oh, you’re right. Hey, are you going to tell us what you splashed us with? Or is there no concept of manners in this place.”

“Um, sorry?” The boy lowers his spear after evaluating for a minute, scratching his head as he answers Taehyun, still utterly bewildered. “I splashed you with a liquid that should have weakened you to turn back into your original states. Er, but, um... the both of you are still in your human form?”

“nO sHIt,” Taehyun says, the lack of panic nerves allowing him to act less suspicious around the boy. “We have no other form, dumbass.” 

“HUH?” The boy shouts, almost dropping his spear in surprise. “You only have a human form?”

“Uh… Yes?” Kai replies unsure, subtly eyeing Taehyun in confusion. 

“Oh.” The boy says, the air around the three of them becoming weird and awkward. Not wanting to just stand around the whole day Taehyun finally asks the boy for his name.

“So, like… Where are we and who are you?” 

“My name is Beomgyu? And you’re currently in the territory of my clan?”

“Territory?” Taehyun asks, looking back into the distance of the waterfall, a sudden thought crossing his mind. “Then, is the forest like, the territory of those lizardy lion things?”

Taehyun watches as Beomgyus eyes widen in shock, his grip tightening around his spear as he looks at the forest. “You’ve fought the ravages?”

“Um, if you count running away from them and then hiding in a cave behind a waterfall as fighting, then yes?” Taehyun supplies. He observes Beomgyus' reaction, the sudden quietness that engulfs the three boys tense, unlike the confused awkwardness from before. However, before he can question the spear boy again, a roar so loud the trees shake rises from the forest.

“Oh fuck.” Beomgyu yells, eyes widening even bigger. 

_ “Fuck, I’m almost becoming used to having this sense of panic.”  _ Taehyun thinks, the warning in his brain telling him to run as fast as he can away from the forest.

“We have to fucking run. Now.” He relays to the other boys. 

Kai’s face curls up in exasperation as he groans. “Fuck, not again.”

“Follow me and don’t lag behind. If you get caught I might not have the ability to save you.” Beomgyu shouts, instantly running up the mountain. Not prepared to meet their maker just yet, Kai and Taehyun take off right after him, not able to catch up to Beomgyu completely but able to still see his back. 

“WHAT THE HELL?” Kai shouts at Beomgyu, the boy slowing down, albeit reluctantly. 

“The ravages will only stop their hunt when their prey has been caught, or they themselves somehow die. I think both of you have unfortunately been targeted as their next prey.”

Not wanting to look behind them, Taehyun pushes himself to run faster, his heart feeling as though it’s about to burst. He knows he’s generally considered to be quite an athletic person, but the constant danger brain telling him he’s going to die if he slows down and the fact that he hasn’t had a proper meal for the past day or so makes him feel like absolute death. 

A quick look at Kai telling him he isn’t in any better shape. Unlike him, Kai never actively tried to do any exercise, only hitting the basic requirements of what was expected athletically of him. Also, he’s pretty sure Kai had managed to cut himself somehow, a gash on his arm bleeding slightly. 

And unfortunately for him, Taehyun trips on a shaky stone, and catches himself wrongly on his ankle, but ignores the pain and continues to run with the others.

They run up the mountain for a good while, his experience from the first chase telling him that his brain warns him of danger that is still a distance away. In front of them, a tiny opening in the rocks encourages them to push even more, but seeing Beomgyu just run past it, Taehyun just cries internally. “ _ Oh ho ho, I’m never running for fun ever again.” _

However, Kai doesn’t run past the opening. Instead, his actions mirror that of when he picked up that wing in the forest, so Taehyun stops to look back down the mountain. Looking down, he sees that there is actually quite a bit of distance between the end of the forest and them, but the appearance of the ravages bursting through the treeline instantly dashing any hopes of a head start. 

Seeing them in person and not through a pool, they look to be slightly smaller than a normal lion, but their scaley tail, sharp claws, and long tongue that pokes out from their elongated snouts add to their ‘monsters who are hunting you down to kill you’ vibes.

Seeing that the two boys have stopped running, and Kai looking blankly at the opening they passed, Beongyu screams. 

“SERIOUSLY, IF YOU STOP NOW YOU’RE GOING TO DIE! THE PROTECTION CHARM HASN’T BEEN ACTIVE FOR OVER A FEW HUNDRED YEARS! YOU WON’T EVEN BE ABLE TO SEE IT!”

However, to his surprise, he watches as Kai gently raises his arm to tap a series of rocks around the opening, the dazed boy not in the least bit frightened at the group of lion-lizard hybrids closing in on him. 

“Fuck Kai, this isn’t time to go all magic on us.” Taehyun screams, the ravages gaining upon them fast. Nonetheless, he doesn't move, unwilling to leave Kai to fend off the ugly lion things alone. 

The warnings in his brain pierce through his head, the overexertion from running up a fucking mountain, and having to watch the lion things catch up to them frightening to the point he just grabs Kai’s free hand, watching as the ravages get closer and closer. 

Beomgyu slides down beside him, raising his spear, ready to fight for as long as possible.

“ _ Is this how we die?”  _ Taehyun thinks, tears gathering in his eyes as the  _ monsters _ roar before pouncing. Beomgyu prepares to block the attack, raising his spear to knock the lion back down the mountain. 

But before the lions reach them, a pulse of energy rushes through the mountain, and the lion gets magically deflected away from the three boys. The 4 lions pounce in attack as well, all being deflected back one after another. They snarl and bite at them, but each time not being able to reach the boys.

Kai’s scream shocks Taehyun out of his stupor, and he quickly hugs Kai as the tears finally fall. 

“You fucking asshole!” Taehyun cries, feeling Kai shake in his arms as the lions continuously try to attack them.

“He activated the protection field…” They hear Beomgyu whisper, his voice almost impossible to heart through the roars of the ravages. 

Still shaking, Kai looks behind him in fear as his own tears start to fall, face to face with the monsters from the waterfall. “Go. We have to go. I don’t know  _ how _ I know, but this protection field won’t stay up for long.”

Tightly holding Kai’s hand, Taehyun wipes the tears from his face as he holds onto the Beomgyu to guide them away. Shocked from the touch, Beomgyu pulls his attention away from the literal monsters just an arms length away from them to the two frightened and crying boys. 

“I’ll bring you back to my tribe.” Is all he says before climbing up the mountain again. Not far up, he drags Kai and Taehyun into a cave, trying to reassure the boys that as long as they don’t waste the time the protection field had granted them, they would be safe once they reach the other side of the cave. 

Quickly running, as they don’t want to let the lions have  _ any _ chance at catching up to them, the trio quickly makes it to the end of the cave but sees no opening in sight. Maybe it’s because of all the  _ utter bullshit _ they have gone through these past 2 days, but Kai and Taehyun just patiently wait for Beomgyu to somehow use his spear to open a passageway through the cave, the younger of the two crying in fear the whole time. 

“Hold on to me and don’t let go. If you do, you’ll be transported to god knows where.” Is all Beomgyu tells them before giving them a literal second to grab onto his arms before he slams his spear into a small magic circle on the ground.

Holding on tight, Taehyun feels himself get pulled through the air, his surroundings turning into a blur as his grip on Kai and Beomgyu never loosens. When the surroundings slowly come back to focus he feels Beomgyu release a deep sigh.

“Okay, you guys can let go now.” 

Taehyun quickly turns to Kai, making sure the younger boy is okay. Rubbing away his tears, Kai nods at him while taking a few deep breaths to calm himself down.

“Tak-Thank y-you.” Kai hiccups, unknowingly not letting go of Beomgyus sleeve. He looks pale and tired, like he’s just a second away from passing out. Taehyun realises and takes his hand, tightly holding Kai as he observes the surroundings they’ve gotten themselves into, more in alertness than in appreciation. 

Seeing as there is no immediate threat to the both of them, Taehyun releases a sigh of relief, feeling most of the strength in his legs just disappearing, standing on sheer will-power alone.

“So like, how far is your tribe? Cuz’ I don’t think me or Kai will be able to climb another mountain.” 

“Not far.” Beomgyu replies, a feeling of wariness overcoming him as he leads them back to his tribe. He stands between the two boys, allowing them to lean their weight on him considering he’s definitely the least tired and traumatised amongst the three of them. 

The trio slowly hobbles their way to an unnecessarily  _ large  _ red tree, like  _ skyscraper  _ big large, in the middle of a clearing, Beomgyu suddenly screaming as loud as he can for the ‘others’. A loud crash is heard from the Tree as two figures jump out of an opening high up in the trunk. 

Suddenly feeling light headed, Taehyun looks at Kai who has already fainted on Beomgyu's shoulder. “Sorry, I’m going to pass out too.” Taehyun whispers, throat burning from the lack of water throughout the day. 

The last thing he realises before everything turns black, are two large figures running straight towards them, shouting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yaaaay, welcome to the end text!
> 
> Hope you enjoyed this update! If there are any suggestions you would like to have in the story do tell me in a comment or on twitter @Fli_shea :D 
> 
> Bai Bai! Till next time!

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome! Thank you for finishing chapter 1!!!!
> 
> I hope you have enjoyed this fic, and will come to visit me on Twitter @Fli_shea !!!! Looking forward to writing out this fic till the end!


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